


Depends on the Day

by liberallesbian37



Series: Project Team Beta's 2013 Writing Challenge [17]
Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-10
Updated: 2013-05-10
Packaged: 2017-12-10 23:11:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/791268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liberallesbian37/pseuds/liberallesbian37
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While at Walmart, Carrie has an awkward encounter with her coworker.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Depends on the Day

**Author's Note:**

> Challenge Number/Title: 17/Mishap Funnies  
> Date Posted: 5/9/13  
> Fandom: Original Fiction  
> Rating: T+  
> Genre: Humor  
> Content Descriptors: Mildly sexual humor  
> Character Pairing: F/M

_Prologue:_

_It had been a normal morning, Carrie thought when she looked back. Downright boring, even. The weather wasn’t unseasonably warm or unseasonably cold, the news hadn’t been groundbreaking, her coffee pot hadn’t broken. Absolutely nothing to indicate that the day would be anything less than ordinary. How maisleading, Carrie though…_

\--

                It was midmorning Saturday when Carrie decided to get her weekly shopping out of the way. Wal-Mart wouldn’t be too busy yet, she reasoned, and it should be easy to get in and out. She could probably be there and back within an hour and a half and would be able to spend the rest of the day watching wedding shows on her DVR.

                She arrived at the superstore to find the parking lot already full. Parking in the very back of the lot, she groaned. Oh well, the exercise wouldn’t kill her.

                Inside the store, she went straight to the personal care aisles. Her mother had taught her to always start with the non food items, move to non refrigerated items, then refrigerated items, and finish with frozen foods. Ten years later, she still followed the order she watched her mother shop in since she was five years old.

                While she shopped, Carrie allowed herself to daydream about the cute boy at work. He’d started a little over a month ago, and had progressed from sweeping floors and washing dishes to actually delivering the food to hungry customers. Last week, she’d overheard him telling a coworker that he wanted to work in the kitchen. She worked in the kitchen.

                Wrapped up in her thoughts, Carrie didn’t notice that she was grabbing a big box of Depends instead of tampons.

                “Carrie?” a familiar voice asked.

                Speak of the goddamned devil… Carrie whipped around and realized what she was holding. Shit…

                “Oh, hi Mark! Um, fancy meeting you here!”

                He nodded, staring at the box in her hands.

                “Oh, I’m just doing some shopping for my mom. She’s older and isn’t able to get out and about as much as she used to. Sometimes I do her shopping. Especially after she had surgery on her, um, hip,” she rambled, lying through her teeth.

                Again, he nodded, seemingly fixated. Frustrated, Carrie noticed for the first time what _he_ was holding. Condoms. Extra large Magnum condoms. He snapped out of his stupor and followed her gaze.

                “I, um, I…” he stammered.

                Carrie’s face flushed.

                “Yeah, I get it. Well, um, I better get going. My, uh, mom is waiting. Wouldn’t want her to worry!” she said. He nodded and she started walking away.

                “Carrie!” he called. She turned around.

                “Don’t forget your shopping list,” he said, handing out the list that, to her horror, was written on the back of a Victoria’s Secret receipt.

                “Thanks, I’ll um, I’ll see you later, I guess,” she muttered before spinning around and nearly running away.

                She looked down at the list and became more mortified that she thought was humanly possible.

                *Tampons

                *Wart remover

                *Crest teeth whitener

                *Panty hose

                *Ice cream—chocolate lovers?

                *Peanut butter

                *Chips—sour cream and onion?

                *Wine—whatever’s on sale

                *Probiotics

                *Air freshener

                “Jesus bloody Christ,” she whispered out loud. This was not the way the day was supposed to go. She was supposed to be able to do her shopping, go home, and get back to her mundane life, where the closest she ever got to drama was when a high maintenance bride couldn’t find the “perfect dress”. Her interactions with Mark were supposed to be limited to “chicken wings for table three” and “wipe down table ten”. Now he’d seen her here, and completely humiliated her. Sure, he hadn’t meant to, and it wasn’t his fault. But still.

                Wait… An idea popped into her head. It was totally stupid… And completely unlike anything she’d ever even dreamed of doing… But maybe she needed to do something crazy and radical. Maybe that was why she was in such a slump. She hadn’t done anything risky in her entire life. Everything had always been safe. Always the route with the least chance of anything going wrong.

                With mild trepidation, she retraced her footsteps, trying to find him. And there he was. Standing in the cookie aisle, considering chocolate chip versus chocolate chunk. He looked up briefly, looked back at the cookies, and then his head shot back up.

                “Carrie, I didn’t expect to see you again,” he said. She nodded slowly in reply.

                “Yeah. I didn’t expect to see you either. Well, I didn’t earlier. But now, I guess I kind of found you on purpose,” she said, stumbling slightly over her words.

                “Oh?” he asked, his eyebrows raised.

                She nodded again.

                “I… Do you work tomorrow?” she asked, chickening out at the last second. His face fell slightly, as if he knew that wasn’t what she meant to say.

                “Oh, um, yeah. I think so. At four.”

                “Cool. Me too. I picked up an extra shift.” She realized that she was rambling and it didn’t make any sense.

                “Okay. Great. So I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said. Again, she nodded. She probably looked stupid, as though nodding was all she could do.

                “Yep! All right. Well, bye,” she said and started to leave. She stopped. She’d come over here for a reason, and goddammit, she was going to accomplish her goal.

                “Mark?”

                “Yes, Carrie?” he asked, sounding slightly impatient.

                “I didn’t really come over here to ask if you were working tomorrow,” she admitted.

                “I didn’t really think you were,” he replied. “So, what is it?”

                Taking a deep breath and praying her breath smelled okay, Carrie took a big step toward Mark and kissed him full on the lips. He seemed surprised, but he didn’t pull away. After a minute, she stepped back, already embarrassed by her rash actions.

                “Oh, god, Mark, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have. I should go. I’m so, so sorry,” she apologized. Mark shook his head.

                “I should buy condoms more often if this is where it gets me.” 

**Author's Note:**

> (c) Megan V-----


End file.
